New SW High School (Austin, Crockett: real estate, homes, neighborhoods)

[jobert]

I heard on NPR this morning that AISD is shopping around for a location to build a new "South" Austin high school. The article states that it could be anywhere between Oak Hill and Onion Creek, but all indicators seems to point to Oak Hill to relieve congestion at Bowie. I think it's long overdue. Hopefully they can design/build a quality product in a short time, because the need is imminent. I think the re-alignment will be interesting, because the Circle C/Oak Hill area could most likely attend this school exclusively, which will be a good sign for home values. For school performance, the new high school will be highly rated right out of the gate. Bowie might now serve the areas east of Mopac to Manchacha now, which will show mixed results. Akins could be a wash as it could lose the area just west of Manchacha on Slaughter, many of these homes track to Bailey, then Akins, but now will be fully aligned as Bailey/Bowie like the rest of the area.

Oak Hill Gazette: The community newspaper for Southwest Austin (http://oakhillgazette.com/default.asp?sourceid=&smenu=73&twindow=&mad=&sdeta il=2864&wpage=1&skeyword=&sidate=&ccat=&ccatm=&res tate=&restatus=&reoption=&retype=&repmin=&repmax=& rebed=&rebath=&subname=&pform=&sc=1846&hn=oakhillg azette&he=.net - broken link)

[hoffdano]

It typically takes three years to open a new 5A-capable high school. The architects can't do much of their job until the land is surveyed. And then there is construction of a 400,000 sq. ft. building.

The biggest issue though is money. Does AISD have $100-150M + from a past bond to pay for this? Or is a bond election coming?

[jobert]

Originally Posted by hoffdano

It typically takes three years to open a new 5A-capable high school. The architects can't do much of their job until the land is surveyed. And then there is construction of a 400,000 sq. ft. building.

The biggest issue though is money. Does AISD have $100-150M + from a past bond to pay for this? Or is a bond election coming?

They have 20M from a 2008 bond to acquire the land.

Another issue besides overcrowding is the gerrymandered attendance zones. In the Oak Hill/Sunset Valley/Brodie area the Crockett/Bowie/Austin High zones merge in a way that is nothing short of ridiculous. Ex: One can live in VAWO and have the kids across the street go to Bowie, while your kids go to Austin High. The neighborhoods may be kept more intact as a result now. I hope they make the best of this opportunity to do so.

[austin-steve]

One can live in VAWO and have the kids across the street go to Bowie, while your kids go to Austin High.

Not exactly, but close. The dividing line is the creek (forget the name) that runs east/west through Legend Oaks, Western Oaks and south of Becket Meadows. So there are no instances of people across the street from each going to different schools. The pockets of different attendance zones are geographically separated by the creek and thus also major roadways. Would have been simpler to see/understand if they'd have used Convict Hill Rd. as the divider, but it's the creek south of Convict Hill Rd. It's very observable in Google Maps.

But the new HS will undoubtedly rekindle the boundary zone debates that happened last year over the new middle school (Grzrckzyxyzyzcky or something like that) and again this year over the new Baldwin (Meridian) elementary. It will split Bowie and separate friends. Emotions run high when those type of separations are imposed upon the yutes.

Steve

[jobert]

Originally Posted by hoffdano

The architects can't do much of their job until the land is surveyed. And then there is construction of a 400,000 sq. ft. building.

One of the biggest obstacles may the environmental considerations. Oak Hill (and areas west of Brodie in general) are in the Edwards Aquifer Recharge Zone which has an impervious cover requirement of no more than 15%... Meaning (at first glance) that the land acquisition would have to be roughly 6X the footprint of the building, parking, and auxiliary structures which could be extremely expensive. This can be stepped around with green building technology such as green roofs, build tall - not sprawl, rainwater harvesting, permeable paving, etc. but it would tack on a premium for sustainable design services and construction. I would really like to see AISD shoot for the moon and construct either a LEED Gold or LEED Platinum high school in this area.

[JERiv]

Hey guys!

Any news on where they're leaning to to the new HS? I can't find anything ANYWHERE about this.

I always thought the area of highest growth was on the sw section of Austin, but now I'm hearing that the new HS might be built on East Austin. Is that an area of high growth?

So I guess my questions boil down to:

1) Where they might build it?
2) Why they'd build it there, as in, does it make sense in terms of growth?
3) Can we have any input into this whole process, or does it happen "behind closed doors"? You know, the "shake hands" sort of shady deals we all dread?
4) Do we know where the people who would make the decision stand? That is, if it's a group of people who get elected, do we know what they are saying, so that we (voters) can have some input on the next election (by making a big fuss about it and doing our best to kick out the ones who want to build it where we don't want them to)?

Thanks in advance!

[centralaustinite]

It is a public school district so most things are in the public record. AISD has a huge website and there is a talent to navigating it. I can't claim to be an expert. This link takes you to the page that updates the facilities built by the 2004 and 2008 bond issues. Right at the top is a link from 2009 that talks about land acquisition (pdf). The only other way I can think of to get more information would be to watch the footage of the board meetings and I don't have that stamina! (I'm not even a public school parent!) Real estate and legal transaction can take place in closed-door sessions for legal reasons but there is a wealth of info out there, you just have to wade through it.

The Apple at Work : Safety

[JERiv]

@centralaustinite:

Thanks!

I think I found what I was looking for:

"South High School Land Acquisition – Staff will present demographic
information and evaluation of potential sites in the August executive session."

So they're about to talk about it.

And the next meeting is... "August 24, 2010-Board Auditorium, 6:00 PM – 9:10 PM"

They really should make all this information more easily accessible! You'd think they don't really want you to get at this info, huh?

[centralaustinite]

You know you can sit on your couch and watch the board meetings! Channel 21 or 22 on TWC. Yes, I have spent many hours that way! The executive session won't be broadcast however.

I don't think that they deliberate hide any information it is just that it is a huge district! 87 schools, closing in on 90,000 students, who knows how many employees, about a billion moving parts and just one web-site for it all. Imagine the data base! I don't think that they tag or catagorize info very well but I think it is the result of legacy systems not design.

There is a lot growth to the SE in student numbers, might shift the location. I love the demographic studies that AISD does, they are available too. Tons of interesting information, I can spend hours on it. (yes, I am a true education geek).

[achtungpv]

So, did anybody watch the meeting to see what the possible locations are?